


In and Out of Love and Back Again

by Indiana_J



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-29 06:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indiana_J/pseuds/Indiana_J
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at the rise and fall of McCoy's love life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In and Out of Love and Back Again

McCoy remembered the exact moment he noticed the woman he would eventually come to marry.

He'd been working a late shift at the hospital ( _if he hadn't traded shifts with Dr. Wynne, he wouldn't have even been there.  Years later, he decided he really didn't like Wynne all that much_ ) when Jocelyn had come in.  Her father had been having chest pains and Jocelyn had not approved of the "lack of response" to her father's condition.

Jocelyn hadn't been a dainty flower - no, she'd been a six foot tall whirlwind of anger and fright and she'd run roughshod over a well-trained, equally as frightening nursing staff.  McCoy had found himself intrigued and had wrangled himself the doctor for her father.

Not that there'd been a huge fight for that honor...

~~

 _"And who are you?" she demands as she stands at the foot of the hospital bed._

 _McCoy glances at the man in the bed and then back to the giantess, squaring his shoulders for the fight that's brewing.  "Oh no one of great importance," he'd returns.  "Just thought you liked to know that I'm the man who's going to make sure_ he _makes it through the night."_

 _It's an interesting start to an interesting relationship._

~~

A year of squabbles and fantastic sex later, they'd gotten married.  It had been simple (his idea) and pink (her idea of a joke).  They went off world for their honeymoon and she'd held his hand the entire way, saying nothing of his (irrationally rational) fear of space travel.  He'd loved her a little bit more for that.

The only time they left the bed was to explore what the bathroom, living room furniture and walls could offer them.  They fought over what side belonged to who, over the colors of the house they'd buy, of if he should wear boxers or briefs (they'd both 'won' when he started to go commando).  The clashes spurred them on, made them fall deeper in love.

And then there would be three.

~~

 _He stares at her in shock as his brain tries to catch up.  "But.  You're - how?"_

 _Jocelyn_   
_just laughs that laugh of hers with her head thrown back, teeth showing, completely unrepentant in her joy and answers, "Oh, Leo-" (God, he hates that name but he lets her say it) "-when a mommy and a daddy love each other - OUFF!"_

 _McCoy is laughing at her laughing at him as he spins her around.  "I'm going to be a father!" he says, because joy is expected at a time like this._

 _And he does feel joy - alongside the terror._

 __~~

The drinking got worse when their daughter was three.  It wasn't Joanna's fault - he'd been in love with that pink wiggling rather disgusting mess the minute she'd left her mother - and it certainly wasn't Jocelyn's.

Roger Jay Ovia.

The three year old little boy who had died during surgery under McCoy's knife.  It had been a mistake, a death that never should have happened.  It wasn't his fault, not really, but he couldn't help but see his daughter's face when they pulled up that sheet and declared time death.

Jocelyn understood, oh god, she'd understood, the first week of drinking.  The first month, even.  After that...

~~

 _She's crying with Joanna asleep in her arms.  McCoy's actually sober for this; Jocelyn picks her time well._

 _"I love you," he says and it's weak in his own ears.  He's lost weight from the drinking and hasn't had more than a passing acquaintance with his razor in three weeks.  He's lost sight of everything but that face under the sheet and his bottle in his hand._

 _"You do, somewhere under that," she's agreeing, wiping her face with her free hand.  "I love you so much, Leo, but I can't take this anymore.  I can't put Joanna_   
_through this.  We're leaving - please, please, get yourself together."_

 _And she kisses him on the cheek and on the mouth, gently, like she's afraid he'll break.  And she's right.  "If not for yourself, for us."_

 _She's leaving and the house they bought feels like a grave._

 _His._

 __~~

Six months after Jocelyn left, he got served with the papers.

Six months and a day after Jocelyn left, and McCoy signed papers of a different sort.

***

McCoy's first exposure to outer space since his honeymoon flight was horrendous.  Hung over, not allowed to sit in the bathroom where there were no windows (because there's no one to hold his hand here) and next to a kid who decided that the best way to keep McCoy from retching all over him was to talk.

The entire way.

It was a three hour flight.

By the time they docked at Starfleet Academy, McCoy's fingers were still clenched and white; the fear had left him an hour in.  He was trying to prevent himself from throttling James T. Kirk.

~~

 _They're stepping off the shuttle when an imposing figure gets right into McCoy's face._

 _"Cadet, have you been_ drinking _?" he yells and everyone's turning to stare._

 _McCoy wants to yell right back, 'Of course I've been drinking, you overachieving mountain!  Look what I just rode in on!' but he doesn't have the chance._

 _Kirk steps up and smiles as he grips McCoy's arm.  "Drinking?  Oh, no sir.  Of course not.  No new cadet would ever think to do that on their maiden voyage to this fine academy."  Says the man with the mostly broken nose.  "He's a doctor, you see, and he's caught a bit of Space flu."_

 _ **Space flu**?_

 _But it works and the man is moving back to a safe distance and McCoy sighs in resignation._

 _He's never going to get rid of Kirk now._

~~

There had been no real chance to have a first reaction to the _Enterprise_.  (There'd been a second of awe as they'd approached but then Kirk had retched all over his new boots.)  It was an emergency situation, all hands on deck kind of deal.

And he'd been chasing Kirk down for the first twenty minutes of it, randomly stabbing him in the neck and trying to stabilize his friend's condition.  The _Enterprise_ had been surprisingly large and Kirk surprisingly quick on his feet for a man in his condition.

And then, the war zone and no time for thinking.

~~

 _He steps over the former Chief Medical Officer's body without so much as a look down.  The man's missing his head, there's nothing he can do for him._

 _People are hurting, screaming, trying to stop the screaming.  The calm that the Academy drills into their cadets is straining but holding.  McCoy's last drink was two years and fifty weeks ago but sometimes the lingering need to have the bottle comes up.  He fights it down, goes about his life._

 _A bottle's the last thing on his mind as he starts to bark out orders and people listen to him, they gravitate to the orders and firm voice._

 _If people would just stop bleeding on him, McCoy would feel like he's finally come home._

~~

Nero's dead, they escaped with their lives, Kirk was officially made captain.  It was over and yet it was just beginning.

McCoy stood on the bridge and watched with vague amusement as Kirk tried on the identity of captain without a do or die situation hanging over his head.  The _Enterprise_ hummed happily under his feet and he stepped back to avoid a happily flailing Scotty telling Chekov exactly what kind of crystals they would need to buy when they docked next.

The shotgun wedding was over with - the honeymoon period was just about to start.

McCoy grinned as Kirk gave him the thumbs up.  The honeymoon period might just last longer than his actual marriage...

~~

 _"Hey, Joanna_   
_, it's dad.  I know it's been a while, sweetie, but you wouldn't believe what we've been up to.  Tell your mom I called and maybe next time we're in your neck of the universe, you both can come up and take a look at the new lady in my life, okay?  You'd love this ship, sweetheart, I just know it._

 _Even if it does fly through the blackest part of space.  Just don't tell your mom that I still close my eyes sometimes, okay?  Our little secret."_


End file.
